INDIANAPOLIS — Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky punched her ticket to the Paris Olympics on Saturday night, finishing first in the women’s 400-meter freestyle final in 3:58.35.
It is her best time in the event since 2022 and her fastest time in the 400 free at the Olympic qualifying event in her career. Ledecky said that’s the best she’s felt swimming the 400 free in a trials meet, which was just as important as the time she posted, and that she typically drops time between trials and the Games.
The top two finishers in each event at U.S. Olympic swimming trials qualify for Paris. Paige Madden finished second in the event on Saturday. Aaron Shackell and Kieran Smith qualified to Paris for Team USA in the men’s 400 free.
KATIE LEDECKY. 💪
She's headed to her fourth Olympics after another dominant performance in the 400m free!pic.twitter.com/O9SxBSZxSP
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 16, 2024
Ledecky, 27, is again expected to be one of the headliners for Team USA this summer at her fourth Games. If she wins three gold medals at the Paris Olympics, she will pass former Soviet Union gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most gold medals by any woman in Olympic history.
Here in Indianapolis, Ledecky will also swim the 200 free (primarily for relay purposes) as well as the 800 free and the 1500 free. She is the current world record-holder in both the 800 and 1500 free, two events in which she’s singularly dominated for much of the past decade.
Ledecky took gold in the 400 free in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and took silver in the COVID-delayed Tokyo Games, finishing behind Australian star Ariarne Titmus in Japan. The competition in the event in Paris will be even stiffer, with Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh in the mix as well. In March 2023, McIntosh set a new world record in the event — which was then broken by Titmus at 2023 World Championships.
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Last week at Australian trials, the 23-year-old Titmus swam the 400 free in a blistering 3:55.44, just .06 off her own world record. She will be the swimmer to beat at this distance at the Games.
“I’m a student of the sport,” Ledecky said. “I keep track of everything that’s going on around the world. So, I know (how) everyone’s going and I’m excited to race everyone. … It’ll be a really fast field.”
Ledecky swam in front of an announced attendance of 20,689, which USA Swimming says is a new world record for an indoor swim meet. Event organizers spent years planning how to put an Olympic-sized pool in the middle of an NFL stadium. So far, it’s received rave reviews, with Ledecky herself saying she’d never felt the kind of energy at a meet that radiated here on Saturday.
“I was just kind of blown away walking out there,” she said. “I hope that it moves our sport forward.”
Required reading
- What to watch at U.S. Olympic swimming trials as Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel and more vie for Paris
- How Lucas Oil Stadium turned into a swimming pool for the U.S. Olympic Trials
(Photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)